Restaurants find healthy foods flop on menus

Chains discover such fare isn't really what diners want

MARGARET WEBB PRESSLER, Washington Post |
August 19, 2005

The national restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday added a low-fat Blueberry D'Lite yogurt parfait to its menu more than a year ago to capitalize on the apparent growing appetite among consumers for healthful fare.

The parfait joined more than 40 better-for-you offerings, along with listings of calorie and fat contents for everything on the menu. French fry portions were trimmed. Heavy advertising touted the chain's Smart Eating program.

But diners didn't bite. So Ruby Tuesday has eliminated the Blueberry D'Lite, along with several other healthful dishes ditched after a lengthy period of slumping sales at the chain. Calorie and fat information was dropped except on the healthful items that survived and were moved to the back of the menu.

Now the chain is aggressively promoting its biggest burgers, and in the last three months, burger sales are up 3 to 4 percent. It has also restored its larger portions of french fries and pasta.

What customers order

Like many restaurant chains in the past two years, Ruby Tuesday has discovered that while customers say they want more nutritious choices, they rarely order them. As a result, fast food and casual dining chains — which together account for three out of four U.S. restaurant visits — are slowly going back to what they do best: indulging Americans' taste for high-calorie, high-fat fare.

Denny Post, chief concept officer for Burger King, said the gap between what diners say and what they do is huge.

"Therein lies the challenge for business, because there is simply not enough behavior shift to build a business around," he said.

Chains are not axing the healthful offerings altogether, because they serve a small, niche market. But most companies are scaling back their promotion of good-for-you products, moving them to less-prominent menu locations and, in some cases, cutting back on the number of more healthful choices.

"The first Ruby Tuesday opened in 1972. In those days, the No. 1 item people ordered when they went out was a hamburger and french fries," said Richard Johnson, the chain's senior vice president. "Today, the No. 1 items people order when they go out are a hamburger, french fries and chicken tenders."

Healthy at home

Food researchers say people are slowly changing their eating habits, but mostly when they eat at home. In consumer surveys conducted by market-research firm Technomic of Chicago, "a clear majority said that they're less concerned and do not follow what they believe are good dietary habits when they're eating away from home," company president Ron Paul said.

Experts in eating behavior say restaurant chains face several hurdles in pushing their more nutritious menu items. The biggest one is that people don't like to sacrifice at all on taste for the sake of eating something nutritious. Another is the higher prices that these items often carry, especially freshly prepared dishes, such as salads and fruit.

And finally, there is the lack of immediate gratification: When a customer orders something with a better nutritional profile, the benefit of that choice may not be noticed sometime in the future.

Some restaurants have found that the best way to sell healthful items is to make them less nutritious. Fried white meat chicken strips have become popular on many menus and are big sellers, including atop salads, in keeping with the perception that chicken is a more healthful alternative to beef.

However, at Wendy's, the Homestyle Chicken Strips Salad, eaten with one pack of ranch dressing, packs 670 calories and 45 grams of fat — more than any hamburger or sandwich on the menu.

With the salads, restaurants "have doctored those products up," said Bob Sandelman, president of consumer research firm Sandelman & Associates. "If people really knew, they would find out that the salads pack more fat and calories. That's why the key word in all this is perceived to be healthy."